Cryoprecipitate therapy in amniotic fluid embolization.

Cryoprecipitate was administered to a patient with severe adult respiratory distress syndrome secondary to an amniotic fluid embolus, diagnosed cytologically. Following the administration of cryoprecipitate, cardiopulmonary and hematologic status markedly improved, and the patient recovered without apparent sequela. She is the sixth surviving patient reported to have an amniotic fluid embolus confirmed cytologically. On the basis of accumulating data on the relationship between fibronectin levels and the integrity of the reticuloendothelial system, it is quite possible that fibronectin (cold-insoluble globulin), and not fibrinogen, played the key role in her dramatic improvement and may well have been responsible for the clinical improvement in earlier patients treated with blood products containing fibronectin.